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NCPD Honors Policemen, EMS Personnel Who Saved Officer’s Life; Four Clergy Members Made Police Chaplains

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Since losing consciousness after going into cardiac arrest while on a treadmill at New Canaan Police Department headquarters in May, Officer Jeff Pollock said he’s had many months to reflect on how different life would have been for others close to him, had two fellow officers and four members of New Canaan Emergency Medical Services members not jumped into action. He’s thought about his parents, sisters, wife and—perhaps, most of all—young son and daughter. “What would they do without their daddy?” Pollock told more than 100 people, including his family, gathered in the Wagner Room at New Canaan High School for a special NCPD ceremony. “They have such a long way to go, so much to learn, so many things to experience, so many milestones to achieve? Would they be able to do it without me?”

Thanks to six people that Pollock called “the heroes that saved my life”—Officers Rex Sprosta and Tom Callinan, and EMS volunteers Russ Kimes, Liam Bowers, Zach Harbage and Wes Yilanes—no one will have to know. 

Police Chief Leon Krolikowski presented the officers with the department’s Medical/Lifesaving Award for their swift action and presented special plaques also to the four medical services personnel in recognition of their actions.

Business

Beef Stew for Emergency Responders in Snow Storm: A Legacy Endures at Joe’s Pizza

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Lorenzo Colella awoke Tuesday morning to the same winter storm news as fellow New Canaan merchants: What had been predicted as two feet of snow would come to about half of that total. Despite the still-hazardous road conditions, the Joe’s Pizza owner decided to open at 11 a.m.

And he decided to do something else. “I just thought about these guys being out there and I figure they’re on the roads and need some food, so maybe I can help them out and give them a little extra kick in their step,” Colella told NewCanaanite.com. That kick came in the form of a beef stew, and from a recipe near and dear to the 1995 New Canaan High School graduate. With potatoes, carrots, beef, onions, cumin, rosemary, salt, pepper, thyme and brown gravy, the stew that Colella offered up to New Canaan police, firefighters, EMTs and public works crews was his mother’s.

News

PHOTOS: Two-Alarm Fire on Cheese Spring Road Friday Afternoon Engulfs Garage Roof [UPDATED]

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Firefighters on Friday afternoon rushed to an eastern New Canaan residence to control a fire that fully engulfed the roof of a garage attached to a wood shingle home. No one was injured in the two-alarm Cheese Spring Road fire that came in at about 12:40 p.m., according to New Canaan Fire Department Assistant Chief Russ Kimes. “On arrival we found the garage roof was fully involved and our units began attacking it there,” Kimes told NewCanaanite.com from the scene at 610 Cheese Spring Road, a home set back at the end of a long driveway near the street’s intersection with Benedict Hill Road and the Wilton town line. “We were able to contain it and protect the rest of the structure.”

The homeowners were home at the time of the fire, and they exited quickly with their two children and dog, according to Fire Marshal Fred Baker. It appears to have started with fireplace ashes placed in trash cans outside the garage, according to Baker.

News

Letter: Vote ‘No’ on Question Three

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To Editor, New Canaanite:

As a member of the Charter Revision Commission, I voted against recommending removal of the first selectman from continuation as the chairman of the Board of Finance and the elimination of the requirement that Board of Finance members be New Canaan “taxpayers”. I recommend a ‘No’ vote on question #3:

Shall the current Charter be changed so that the First Selectman, although remaining an ex-officio member of the Board of Finance, will no longer serve as Chairman of the Board of Finance, and the Board of Finance will choose its Chairman from its regular members? If the proposed change is approved, the appointed Board of Finance will be totally unaccountable to the voters of New Canaan. The present requirement that the first selectman serve as chairman of the Board of Finance without vote except in the case of a tie, originated in the 1935 Charter of the town of New Canaan. The argument that after 80 years of fiscally responsible government there is now a need for an additional check to balance the power of the Board of Selectmen evidences a misunderstanding of the responsibilities of the town’s governing bodies.

Around Town

Did You Hear … ?

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New Canaan’s Teri Buhl, convicted of second-degree breach of peace following reinstatement of the charge by the state Supreme Court, said in a post on her website Wednesday that she’s hoping to raise “a few hundred dollars” via Paypal so that she doesn’t get beat up or raped in jail. Buhl said that on Friday she will enter the state’s female prison, the high-security York Correctional Facility in Niantic, Conn. and needs the money to “pay for phone calls and to buy things for other inmates from the jail store to ‘buy protection.’ ”

“Based on interviews with other women who have been in York prison there will be gangs based on race in jail. I get to somehow try to ‘gain favor’ with the leader of the white gang to help make sure I don’t get beat up or raped.”

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The developer of the new Post Office now taking shape in earnest on Locust Avenue said he’s actively taking inquiries from professionals interested in renting the 3,800-square-foot second floor of the Federal-style building. Asked for details on the space, New Canaan’s Richard Carratu said it features two separate entrances, a dedicated elevator and 14 parking spaces.